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I have to acknowledge that my dislike of exotic birds is only partly due to my patriotic preference for what belongs here and to my strong concerns about the displacement of native species. I admit it is also an aversion to their destructive activities in the
garden about which I am blatantly racist. Blackbirds, Starlings and Indian Mynas should go back to where they came from!
Having said that, I observed an unusual event yesterday involving the above three.
There has been a big increase in Blackbirds here in the past year, a considerable drop in Mynas (which pleased me) and the arrival of starlings for the first time (which does not)
Yesterday I was as always in the vegie garden when there was a great commotion across Ginninderra creek in the first trees on Percival Hill. About 100 small dark birds were flocking, landing in the grass, flying up into the trees and making a commotion.
I kept hearing different calls. Some looked like Mynas but some were obviously not so I got the binoculars. It was a mixed flock of the three similar-sized exotics, say 40 Mynas, 40 Blackbirds and 20 Starlings. They seemed simply to be doing some kind of
bonding. There was no aggression, just vigorous and demonstrative play of some kind. After about 10 minutes they all took off in a a black cloud and flew north and disappeared beyond the dam wall.
I hope they kept going a very long way and never come back!
Cheers
John
On 11 Dec 2013, at 8:45 am, Mark Clayton <> wrote:
Morning all,
This was sent to both Geoffrey Dabb and myself this morning. Obviously Joe knows of our dislike for exotics (read Spotted Dove in this case) in the local area.
“One for all exotic dove haters! A Barbary Dove calling from atop a street light in Amaroo this morning. Took off towards Forde.”
Cheers,
Mark
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